Elk Hunting tips and advice PLEASE

[mrtires24]

I am looking for tips and advice on Elk Hunting. Tips, and locations appreciated. I understand that people don't like giving up locations.

A little bit about me...
I have only been hunting for 3 years, this next season will be my fourth. I put in a lot of effort each year. I Do lots of trips scouting pre season, and lots of trips hunting. My boots hit the ground. The main area I would probably hunt is Reg 8. but I do plan to possibly do a trip up north possibly.

Although I have been successful with hunting each year, The deer still eludes me. I have been lucky enough to harvest a Moose, a Bison, and a black bear. I have put in months of hunting and scouting for a deer, and just can't seam to get one, so I have decided to shift my focus on Elk and if a legal deer crosses my path...BANG

I have been watching Randy N vids on youtube. I have practiced my Bull call, and know of one spot in 8-5 that I have seen a herd, as well as seen a couple cow elk on other days.

Seams Elk like the forrest and rarely come out into clearings. I have never heard a Bugle.

If anyone has any tips and advice or locations for me I will really appreciate it. PM's ok. I understand that elk is probably one of the most difficult of the ungulates to hunt. But at the rate that am going, I will harvest every other animal before I get my first deer, so it only seems fitting to focus on Elk.

Thanks again ahead of time.

[Bugle M In]

Seems more folks have success with elk in the Peace Region these days, but I hear it is getting busy up there as well.
In 8-5, it sounds like your best chance to snag a elk is in the bow season.
By the time gun hits, they become ghosts, shut down all communication, and disappear to private land in many cases.
EK for me and many others have been crap, but the more south in the area you are, the more the #'s hold.
WK is completely a different hunt in many spots, but would recommend areas that border the EK/WK.
(only from conversations I have had with many, fyi)
Might be some changes coming to regs for ek this year??? so stay tuned, but some are having better success early on, also with bow.
Lots of vids out there, from primos to some really good callers etc, but I have seen some terrible callers,
like my dad, get elk (so don't get hung up on it).
Do searches on here for elk.
Plenty of advice and links.
Good luck.

[steve-r]

Have a look at Elk101.com . Cory Jacobsen's University of Elk Hunting (UEH) online course was well worth the money imho. Calling instruction, trip prep, gear, training, locating elk, setup strategies, wind and thermals understanding, audio and video, elk behavior pre-rut, rut, post-rut....obviously no guarantee but you will go on your hunt with a lot more confidence.

[madcalfe]

learn to bugle. mouth reeds for cow call seem to work the best...after some practice. i never usually wait for bugling bulls to come to me i go to them most of the time. thick and steep terrain. 4 out of 5 6 points i have shot all been within 50 yards, in thick bush. stay off quad trails and hit the timber! and yes peace region i think have best odds for getting some elk.

[mrtires24]

learn to bugle. mouth reeds for cow call seem to work the best...after some practice. i never usually wait for bugling bulls to come to me i go to them most of the time. thick and steep terrain. 4 out of 5 6 points i have shot all been within 50 yards, in thick bush. stay off quad trails and hit the timber! and yes peace region i think have best odds for getting some elk.

thick and steep...would it be south facing? up hihg? or close to the bottom of a valley? what do they eat? Thanks

[pg83]

i never usually wait for bugling bulls to come to me i go to them most of the time.

I have missed the chance at many a bull by being too passive with them during the rut. Don't be dumb and rush in without caution, but use their own distractions against them and get tight before signalling your presence to seal the deal.

[Rattler]

Learn how to do a location bugel. Once a bull is heard get the wind in your favour and go right at it. Try to get within 200yards. Bugel and get ready. Make sure the wind is in your favour. 90% of time the wind will mess up the hunt. Another good tip is to rake a tree.
Practice using mouth reeds. The primos calls work well and are easy to use if you can’t bugel with a reed.

[todbartell]

get on those bulls and start challenging them. Lots of great info on youtube about challenging the herd bulls. Aggressive tactics that will see you notching your tag year in and year out

[Ferenc]

Just remember these days they seem at times not to bugle ... always stay on guard ,I’ve had them them come in so silient it surprises the crap out of you .... and on the same hand had them come in like a freight train ... I find the 3pt or better areas along with a cow opening see a bit more pressure than the 6pt areas .... weather I find plays a good one on the calling ..... Hot Sept days/night shuts them down abit .... cold frosty mornings are generally better as are rain days.
You gotta find them .... as an old avid sucessful elk hunter told me .. the worst thing you can do is nothing if you have one bugling
Finding an area is the hard part .... once you that find that the elk will be there.
And watch out for them Grizz ... where elk are found they are usually close by.
never be complacent while cow callin in the thick alder ... hunt with someone in the mornings rather than going solo, best time to be adventurous .... if you mess up ya got the rest of the day to figure it out.

[willyqbc]

Ok...this could be a bit long, but I'll try and run down our elk hunting strategies.

You need to learn your area.....identify the food source, could be fresh logging, agriculture, old burn etc, identify the water source, identify the shaded draws that are away from roads/quad trails etc. Our belief from witnessing elk come back to the food source in the grey hours of the morning, is that they feed during the night, probably going back and forth to water source a few times, returning to the food source around first light at the latest. when they move out toward the bedding area, which may be many km away, they tend to go slowly, feeding along the way.
We ALWAYS start at the food source in the morning. After identifying a likely looking draw, the plan is to hike from food source to draw....the key for us, is you want to be FOLLOWING the herd...not trying to get in front and "cut them off". It is very un-natural for an elk to be heading from bedding area towards the food source in the morning....so we choose to do what all the other elk are doing, and hike from food to bedding area.
We use bugles almost exclusively.....we don't worry about wind, we don't worry about noise...elk are VERY noisy in the bush....just hike at a normal walking pace through the timber and bugle as loud as you can, every couple hundred yards.
Now, once you get a response....don't try doing anything fancy or sneaky....beeline straight for it, and continue bugling. You may end up chasing the bugles for several hours as the herd feeds away from you...don't panic and try to close the distance too soon. The cows are driving this bus, and they are slowly walking and feeding towards the bedding area....you are not going to turn that bull, until the cows finally stop for the morning.
Now, once the cows stop and you notice you are closing in on the bugle, it time to send the shooter 100 or so yards ahead of the caller and have him or her move downwind as well. as a unit, the caller and the shooter continue towards the last bugle heard, keeping the 100 yd gap between, you're gonna wanna slow down your advance at this point, and the callers can mix in some cow calls at this point. Once you get within the bulls comfort zone, he is not gonna want you to come in on "his" bedded cows, and he will come back to kick your butt. Invariably he will swing downwind and when close, will try and find some sort of "hiding spot" where he is obscured and can check you out first. but he is zoned in on where the bugle is coming from....which is 100 yds back and to the side of the shooter who is staying silent. this usually gives the shooter plenty of time to count points etc when the bull comes into view. BOOM! dead bull and the real work begins!
Some days this can take hours of following to seal the deal, but when using this method, if we got a bull responding to us, we almost ALWAYS got a look at him. We havent hunted elk in a few years now, but when we were hunting them hard, we pulled about 15 bulls in a five year span using this method.



Not the only way to hunt elk...just what has worked for us!
Hope this helps! and good luck!